(The complaints) plainly treat Craigslist as the publisher or speaker of information created by its users. … Sheriff Dart may continue to use Craiglist’s website to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content. … But he cannot sue Craigslist for their conduct.”

Matt Zimmerman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation praised the decision, saying it reinforces the principle that Internet sites aren’t responsible for the behavior of their users.

Service provides are not liable because Congress correctly understood that the soap box should not be held responsible for the speech of others. Just as phone companies are not liable for harassing phone calls, or email software providers for deceptive messages, online message boards like Craigslist are in most instances not liable for their users’ posts. It is not enough, as both Dart and South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster continue to demonstrate, to identity a problem and then stumble into court without a valid argument, pointing at the most prominent (although not legally culpable) target in sight.

In November, Craigslist reached a settlement with the attorneys general of 40 states to require strippers and escort services to pay a fee with a credit card to post ads, as a means of reducing prostitution.